Nine To Noon

Three years after a landmark case over the impact of gifting on subsidies for long term residential care, a legal expert says the guidelines are still unclear and confusing. The 2018 case related to then 80 year old, Gwyneth Broadbent, who over a period of time sold the family home, and holiday home, into family trusts, within the allowable limit of $27,000 a year. By the time she needed to go into a care home in 2014 nearly $330,000 worth of assets had been gifted. But the Ministry of Social Development argued that the assets' value had increased over the years, thanks to the property boom, and therefore, Mrs Broadbent had deprived herself of an income, and should contribute to the cost of her care. The Broadbents challenged and won at the High Court, but the ministry appealed the decision and a settlement was reached. So what are the current guidelines? And what do people considering gifting money to their children need to know? Theresa Donnelly is Legal Services Manager for Perpetual Guardian.

Global warming is unfolding more quickly than feared and humanity is almost entirely to blame, according to the most comprehensive climate change survey ever published. The latest report of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says every inhabited region on earth is likely to experience frequent extreme weather events involving heat, rain and drought as greenhouse gases continue to push temperatures up. The report finds even under a moderate emissions scenario, the global effects of climate change will worsen significantly over the coming years and decades. But the IPCC authors say deep, rapid emissions cuts could spare the world from the most severe warming and associated harms. Kathryn speaks with one of the authors, Michael Grose - a climate projection scientist with the Australian government agency CSIRO - the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation.

Bill McKay joins Kathryn to talk about how cities in the 70s used to be described as doughnuts, with the CBD lifeless in the evenings and weekends - empty holes surrounded by suburbs. But the growth of hospitality and more liberal planning concepts have created the reverse doughnut. As more retail spaces are abandoned in the central city, what will that mean? Bill looks at what's been happening in Tauranga. Bill McKay is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Architecture and Planning at the University of Auckland.

The team at freeze-dried avocado company OvÄvo is excited about the potential for fruit, deemed imperfect for supermarket shelves, being processed into something palatable. In conjunction with food scientists from Callaghan Development and Massey University's food technology department, an avocado powder has been developed to be used in a range of foods including ice-cream, tortilla wraps, truffles and hummus. The company's fruit come from a huge orchard near Ahipara in the far North. OvÄvo CEO Andrew Vivian says previously, around half a million undersized or flawed avocados from 100,000 trees ended up as "press grade, meaning they'd be send to oil manufacturers.

Neale and Brigitte join Kathryn to look at the National Party's annual conference at the weekend, with Peter Goodfellow retaining his job as president and the Young Nats turning on the party over its bulk vote against the proposed ban on gay conversion therapy. Where does this leave Judith Collins' desire for unity in the party? An announcement on the 'road map' out of Covid is due this week - how much is riding on this? And is the government backpedaling on the cycling bridge - was it ever a real prospect? Neale Jones was Chief of Staff to Labour Leader Jacinda Ardern, and prior to that was Chief of Staff to Andrew Little. He is the director of Capital Government Relations. Brigitte Morten is a director with public and commercial law firm Franks & Ogilvie and a former senior ministerial advisor for the previous National-led government.

Louise O'Brien reviews The Piano Girls by Elizabeth Smither, published by Quentin Wilson Publishing.

Europe correspondent Seamus Kearney joins Kathryn to talk about the worst heatwave in 30 years that's hit southern Europe, generating devastating wildfires and forcing many to flee. Belarus was already on the outer in Europe, but the high-profile defection of one of its sprinters from the Olympics is likely to further isolate the country. And EU nations are pulling ahead of the US and UK in the vaccination race.

New research shows teenage boys are uncomfortable calling out their peers sexist behaviour. University of Auckland psychology professor Nicola Gavey has led a study examining views on gender, sexism and online ethics. The Shifting the Line project spoke to more than 50 Auckland 16 and 17 year olds.

A new book by a New Zealand journalist claims the British and US governments tried to cover up the reason why a British Airways flight landed in Kuwait just as Iraqi forces invaded the country in 1990, which led to the capture of the passengers and crew - many of whom were used as human shields. Flight 149 with 367 passengers and 18 crew flew from Heathrow bound for Kuala Lumpur on August 2nd 1990, with stopovers scheduled in Kuwait and Chennai in India. But the plane never made it back out of Kuwait - it landed just as Iraqi forces invaded. Iraq's leader Saddam Hussein had made his hostilities toward Kuwait well-known and the military buildup had been happening for weeks - so why was a commercial flight allowed to land in what was so obviously about to become a war zone? In his new book Operation Trojan Horse, Kiwi investigative journalist Stephen Davis digs deep into the presence of nine British intelligence agents on board the flight - a team of so-called black ops - who were on a mission to gain intelligence about Saddam's troop movements. He says this was the reason the plane had to land, resulting in the months-long ordeal for the hostages. Kathryn talks to him about what he's labelled a cover-up by the British government, and how it's renewed calls from the surviving passengers and crew of the flight for the release of the official investigation into what happened.

Comedians Te Radar and Michele A'Court with a few laughs, and maybe some tears, as one of the country's cheapest sparkling wines, Bernadino is set to be discontinued.